The throbbing in her ankle was worse when she moved it. Maybe it was broken.

A maid of honor with a cast on her ankle. Gussie would love that.

She squirmed around the broken seat and finally was able to reach the phone, and dial 911.

“We’ve had an accident. We need an ambulance. They’ll need to bring equipment to cut us out of the car. No. I don’t know where we are. Can you track this phone with GPS?”

The 911 operator pointed out there was a hurricane. Emergency vehicles were busy.

“I know there’s a hurricane. No, I don’t see any street signs. I told you. I can’t get out of the car. Yes, I’ll stay on the line. The woman who’s badly injured is Annie Irons, Police Chief Irons’s wife.”

She held on another minute. Then the line went dead.

Was that enough time for the Emergency Center to track the call? She hoped.

Annie’s cell phone battery light was blinking. Just what she needed. A dead phone.

She started to dial Will’s number. Maybe she could get through before the phone died completely. Then, only inches from her head, someone knocked on the glass of the passenger seat window.

“You folks need help?”

From outside, in the pouring rain, a face peered in at her.

She rolled the window down. Thank goodness Annie had an old-fashioned car. No power windows.

“We’ve had an accident. We’re both trapped in the car. I’ve only hurt my ankle, but my friend is unconscious. I called 911 but I didn’t know where to tell them we were. If you know, could you call and tell them?”

“No problem, Maggie. Let me see if I can get you out of there.”

Maggie looked closer. Through the heavy rain it was hard to see, and the man was wearing a dark hoodie. But, yes. It could be. “Rocky Costa?”

“In person.”

“Where did you come from?”

“Didn’t Annie tell you? I live over that way.” He gestured in the general direction of the brick wall. “You were coming to pay a call on me. You’re late, so I came to see what was holding you up. And here I’ve found you had a bit of a problem along the way.” Rocky stood and looked over the car, shaking his head. “Women drivers. Annie always did have a heavy foot.”

“I’d love to talk with you, but why don’t you call 911 first? Let them know where we are. Annie needs to get to a hospital.”

“Actually, I’m thinking this is working out just fine the way it is. Two birds in one car crash, as it were.”

“Why was Annie bringing me to see you?”

“You were getting a little too nosy, Maggie from New Jersey. I heard from one of the kids on my baseball team this afternoon that he’d talked with you. He wanted me to tell him he’d done the right thing. He figured it would be okay, telling you about the drugs, seeing as Cordelia isn’t exactly in the business anymore. He didn’t see the big picture. But I figured you, being a smart professor and all, you might put all the pieces together. So I told Annie what the boy’d done, and we decided it would be best if you didn’t tell anyone what you’d heard.”

“I haven’t told anyone,” said Maggie. Except Will, she thought. “I talked to the boys this afternoon, and was planning to spend the weekend celebrating a wedding, as you’ll remember. I’m going back to New Jersey Sunday.”

“Annie and I decided to change your plans a little. To make sure you don’t open your mouth and share any information someone here in Winslow might find of interest, you understand,” said Rocky. He stood back a little, his clothing and hoodie dripping, rain running off his nose and fingers. The wind had let up a little, but the rain hadn’t. Water coursed down the street, creating a new waterway. “But I believe now this little accident opens up new possibilities.”

“What do you want from me?” said Maggie.

“Simple. I want you to disappear,” said Rocky.

Not good. Would the emergency operator be able to trace her call? She couldn’t count on it. Caught in the car she had no defense. Maggie pressed down on the door handle again. “I don’t understand enough to be dangerous. Sean and Josh said Cordelia was dealing the drugs. Why should you worry about that? Cordelia’s dead.” She pushed on the door. It stuck at the same place it had before. Rocky didn’t seem to notice.

“For a professor you really aren’t that bright,” said Rocky. “Sure, Cordelia sold a few drugs to some high school kids. Those dolls of hers were a good cover. She was a nice lady. She and I were together a lot of years. But there’s no way Cordelia could have organized the business. She was small-time. All she wanted was money to pay her taxes.”

Suddenly Maggie understood.

“Annie. Annie was the one who managed the operation, wasn’t she?” Annie, who collected high-end antiques and wore expensive clothes on a small-town police chief’s salary.

Annie, who kept busy every hour of the day proving she was a perfect wife and mother. Annie, who had friends and family in South Boston. Suddenly it all fit together.

“But what about Dan Jeffrey? Why was he killed?” Maggie moved closer to the car door and kept pushing it with her shoulder and arm. She had to get out. The metal creaked and moved another fraction of an inch.

“He panicked when his daughter showed up. He thought she’d tell her friends in Colorado he was still alive, and it’d get back to the police or insurance people there, and he’d be arrested. He didn’t want that. He was going to take off. Annie said she loved him. I don’t know the details. But what Annie wants, Annie gets. Dan hired me to take him to Boston in my old fishing boat. I hardly use it anymore, but he was desperate to get away and not have anyone see him go, so I agreed. Somehow Annie found out. She met us at my dock at dawn the day we were going to leave. They argued, and she shot him. She paid me to take him and the gun and throw them both overboard in the Bay. I guess I didn’t go far enough out.”

“And Cordelia?” She tried to keep her voice steady, and Rocky talking, while she put as much pressure as she could on the jammed door. Every tenth of an inch counted.

“She wanted out of the business. At first she wanted to scare ­Diana, get her to leave Winslow. Get her away from the drugs and the craziness. That was the fire.”

“Cordelia was going to burn her own house?”

“She was pretending to. Then she told me she’d decided to get out of the business. She’d changed her will, Dan was gone, and she was going to ask Diana to come and live with her. She wanted a family. She was going to tell Annie she wasn’t taking any more product. She was going to return what she had, and that was the end.”

“And?”

“Next thing I knew Cordelia was dead.” Maybe Rocky’s eyes were filled with tears. Maybe the rain had just gotten harder.

“And so now you’re supposed to kill me,” said Maggie. “Because I know too much.”

“Idiot. You’ve made sure she knows more than she did before.” Annie’s voice was weak, but her eyes were open, and beginning to focus. “You’re even more stupid than I thought you were, Rocky.”

“Annie, I may be stupid, but I know enough to know I’m through with you. Through with all this. Killing Cordelia put it over the line for me. I loved that woman. You knew that, but it didn’t make a difference. You had no reason to kill her.”

“If she wasn’t in the business, she could have turned on us.”

“She didn’t know about Dan.”

“But I do. And now you’ve been crazy enough to tell this Maggie person. You’re an accessory to Dan Jeffrey’s murder, Rocky. There’s no way you’ll get away with that.”

Rocky reached under his hoodie.

Through the rain Maggie saw the end of Rocky’s gun. She pushed her shoulder even harder against the car door. The metal was groaning, but pounding rain on the roof of the car and the wind all around them masked the sound.

“You think you can get away with shooting both of us?” Annie managed to shriek. “Two defenseless women, trapped in a car, shot by a madman? My husband will hunt you down!”